On June 4th, 1919, the 19th Amendment was ratified into the Constitution. This year marks the 100th anniversary that women gained the right to vote.
The Democratic women of the House of Representatives all decided to wear “suffragette white” in solidarity of the 100th anniversary during President donald Trump’s State of the Union Tuesday Night.
Lois Frankel (D. Florida), chair of the Democratic Women’s Working Group, suggested that the women wear white to commemorate the suffrage movement. But coordinated outfits is not a trait particular to last night’s SOTU; Democratic women wore all-white outfits to Trump’s first public address before a joint session of the United States Congress on Tuesday, February 28, 2017. The second occurrence was when democratic women wore all black in the 2018 SOTU in solidarity with the #MeToo movement.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D. New York) voiced her take on the movement of solidarity, saying, “I wore all-white today to honor the women who paved the path before me, and for all the women yet to come. From suffragettes to Shirley Chisholm, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the mothers of the movement.”
Nancy Pelosi assumed officer on January 3 of this year as Speaker of the House. Since then, she has been completely against Trump’s border wall, not giving in to his power of persuasion as the government shut down over the decision to fund -or not fund- the wall.
After being elected, Pelosi spoke about being elected as the SoH. “It gives me pride to be the woman Speaker of the House of this Congress, which marks 100 years since women won the right to vote, and as we serve with more than 100 women.”
It’s true that more than 100 women serve in the House, as well as more people of color than ever being elected. The first two Native American women were elected this year; Deb Haaland (D. New Mexico), and Sharice Davids (R. Kansas), as well as the first two Muslim women; Rashida Tlaib (D. Michigan) and Ilhan Omar (D. Minnesota).
Carol Miller (R. West Virginia) puts it best when she talks about being a woman in Congress. “I’m a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a business owner and a bison farmer. I don’t think my gender defines who I am, but it does add value and perspective to the decisions I make.”
And not just the women of congress showed their solidarity; House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D. Maryland) handed out white ribbons to male congress members in support of the anniversary.